Klio is delighted to be joining the Education team here at Blandy. After several seasons of scientific and applied field work from California to North Carolina, as well as environmental education teaching in the foothills of Georgia during the “off” season– she cannot express how good it feels to firmly put down roots back at home! She is a Shenandoah Valley native, who has longed to return to the valley and give back to her community through hands-on and outdoor learning. Her passion for our local environment began through environmental education programs at her elementary school in Berkeley County, West Virginia. Since then, she has been steadfast in her desire to give back all the knowledge and experiences that were imparted to her as a young student.  

 Klio graduated with her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2018 where she majored in Environmental Science with a concentration in Natural Resource Conservation and Ecology, and a minor in Geology. During her undergraduate career, she split her volunteer hours between coastal geomorphology lab work, tutoring students at a local middle school, and community gardening. After graduating, she began her seasonal career with the National Park Service (NPS) at Yellowstone National Park where she was an Aquatic Invasive Species watercraft inspector and eventually, on the vegetation management team where her true passion lies (plants and trees!). She has worked as a park guide in Oklahoma for NPS and most recently in the Great Smokies, NC as a forester. Her favorite field work hands-down has been tree surveys, where she has been lucky to work with the U.S. Geological Survey in the Sierras and U.S. Forest Service in the Rockies. However, through all her time out west, she has always longed for the humble Appalachian Mountains and valleys that she knows the best and loves the most.  

Her environmental education career began in the southern Appalachian mountains when the summer field season was over, and as much as she enjoys working in the field– there is nothing like working with students outside: getting their hands dirty, turning rocks over in a mountain creek, wondering and dreaming out loud, becoming quiet to absorb the moment, writing a poem or drawing a picture of what inspires, and ultimately, exploring and tuning into the vast natural world that surrounds us every day.  

When she is not teaching, these days she can be found playing music or making art with friends, hiking and foraging with her dog Jasper, or on a canoe on the Shenandoah River.